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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23549119">Open your optics</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reyns456/pseuds/Reyns456'>Reyns456</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>zine stuff [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Light Angst, M/M, Pre-Canon, i really liked working on this fic, needlenose is not feeling happy with stuff, the full setting its pre-war, the ship its there but it's like in canon, the tittle is kinda dumb but i like it lol, tracks shows little but has a big influence in the plot</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 17:01:02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,999</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23549119</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reyns456/pseuds/Reyns456</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>"Needlenose sighed slumped against a wall of a building on a quiet and mostly isolated part of the city. He really needed to get away from his brother, just for a little while. Not that Tracks would be looking for him, at least not until he needed a new batch of chips. (...)<br/>He was so deep in thought that he didn’t notice the group of mechs starting to gather around the building, at least not until he decided to go back home and accidentally crashed into one of them."</p><p>Needlenose feels trapped by his brother and his work, maybe, just maybe this accidental meeting with this mech could give him what he was looking for.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Horri-Bull/Needlenose (Transformers)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>zine stuff [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1694860</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Open your optics</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>A fic i did for the Rise Up decepticon zine! The theme I had was "What makes a Decepticon?"<br/>I had lots of fun writing this and I'm really proud of the result. I really enjoyed participating in this zine!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Did you finish the new batch of Chic Chips?” Tracks asked while entering his brother’s studio.</p><p>Said brother was sitting at his work table, his back to Tracks, servos delicately working on one chip. He wasn’t paying attention to his surroundings, too focused on his work. He had been designing this model for some time, calling it his masterpiece, and it was going to be perfect. So he had been working on it for weeks, and by now he had a few finished ones. Every chip needed time and dedication, and he had told Tracks he'd let him know when they were all ready"</p><p>Apparently his brother had dismissed what he had said, like he always did.</p><p>After a few minutes of Tracks staring at him from the door, pede impatiently hitting the floor every few seconds, waiting for an answer, Tracks got more impatient. By then his tapping was getting too loud for Needlenose to ignore but he was still doing his best to tune him out. Tracks probably noticed because he just became more and more noisy.</p><p>After a particularly loud sound startled Needlenose, making him slip and almost burn the chip he was working on, he couldn’t take it anymore. He hit the table turning around to face his brother, who stared at him with a displeased expression.</p><p>“WHAT!?” he asked, irritated.</p><p>“I said, did you finish the new batch of Chic Chips,” responded Tracks on a similar tone. They stared at each other for a few seconds in silence.</p><p>“For Primus, Tracks! NO, I HAVEN’T FINISHED THEM!” he pointed at the few chips on the table. Why can't his brother remember he told him this chips were important and would take time?</p><p>“The last one took you less time.” Tracks was really making it hard for him to contain his anger, but he didn’t want to get into a fight that would distract him even more from his work.</p><p>“Well this model is different, so it will take more time,” he said slowly, as if like that his brother would actually listen to him for once.</p><p>They stared at each other for a moment until Tracks relented and left with a huff. Needlenose tried to relax a little and went back to the chips. Tracks' whole attitude was annoying, even if he knew his brother was just getting restless because they hadn’t released anything new on a while and they needed to ‘keep up with the trends’ for bots to still be interested in their products.</p><p>That was something that irritated Needlenose. Tracks insistence of following ‘trends’. Whatever was popular at the time instead of something that HE thought bots would like to use. The chips he made were selling well enough, probably not as much as he would like but Tracks said that he was aiming toward a small market. Something Needlenose though that was a dumb idea. He made them for whoever wanted them, why limit their marketing to a small group? Whoever his brother considered that target audience was... He had his suspicions, but for now preferred not to think about it.</p><p>Even then, he had to admit that it was starting to bother him. Tracks said it was a marketing thing, that his target audience were the perfect buyers and others wouldn’t care for cosmetic chips anyways so he mostly avoided them. Sometimes he wondered leaving his brother in charge of marketing had been a good idea, but then again he didn’t care much for it.He just cared about making chips and getting them to users. Tracks was the one who wanted to sell them and this was getting them out, right?</p><p>Even if it was a small market.</p><p>Maybe someday he could make it available for all.</p><p>With a sight he went back to finish the chips before his brother decided to come back to bother him again.</p><p>-----------------------</p><p>Needlenose sighed slumped against a wall of a building on a quiet and mostly isolated part of the city. He really needed to get away from his brother, just for a little while. Not that Tracks would be looking for him, at least not until he needed a new batch of chips. So he was ‘free’ for a few weeks. Then when a new ‘mode’ is on the rise and Tracks feels like they would need to improve or be left behind. So he would come and ask him, nicely, to go back to work. As if he wouldn’t be working on new models of his liking in the first place.</p><p>The amount of models he had to drop or delay because Tracks thought his ideas should be made first was growing with time and Needlenose was getting tired of having his work underappreciated by his brother. He was getting tired of this whole small market stuff, he really wanted to have every mech enjoying his chips, he made them for everyone! But all his dear brother cared about was business and getting popular. His brother just cared about money and nothing else...</p><p>He was so deep in thought that he didn’t notice the group of mechs starting to gather around the building, at least not until he decided to go back home and accidentally crashed into one of them.</p><p>Said mech was a head taller than Needlenose, grey and dark yellow with shiny red optics and two long things coming out of his back: they… they were horns? Was he a beastformer? Needlenose hadn’t seen a lot of them around. This one was pretty bulky and….</p><p>…he had been staring at the mech for a bit too long without saying a word.</p><p>“Sorry! I didn’t see where I was going,” he said, a little embarrassed. Trying to keep his optics off the mech, he looked around and realized all the mechs that had started gathering. Weird: this wasn’t a highly circulated area, it was the reason why he came here in the first place.</p><p>What was going on here?</p><p>“No problem,” he heard the bigger mech say, Needlenose focused on him again. The mech shrugged after a moment and stepped aside to go in the same direction the others were going. Needlenose didn’t know why but he felt a little disappointed by such short interaction, until the mech stopped, looking back at him. “Are you coming?” Needlenose looked at him surprised he didn't expect the offer. He didn’t want to go home yet and he was actually getting intrigued by the mechs gathering on the secluded area.</p><p>“Sure.” </p><p>And with that he ended up in a Deception meeting.</p><p>The first of many.</p><p>-----------------------</p><p>The meetings where stimulating: it felt like finally opening his optics for the first time, making him admit to himself that some things, like the treatment of those seemed lower, were things he knew, but ignored. There were also a lot of others topics that he didn’t know and wasn’t surprised he hadn’t heard of before.</p><p>He started hanging out with the mech the crashed into that first day. After introducing himself as Horri-Bull he told Needlenose he had been involved with the movement for a while. He talked with him about the basics and even lent him a copy of a datapad a certain Megatron had written. </p><p>At first they just met at the gatherings and talked, then they started going out for drinks after them, and then, after a while, they just went to get engex on some days when there were no meetings. He didn't know when but they had become friends at some point, and that excited him a little more than he wanted to admit.</p><p>The conversations were mostly about the meetings, their ideals, their wishes for the changes they wanted for the society, and after a while, trust started to build and they started to open up, talking about their lives, hobbies and all that. He complained a lot about Tracks, maybe a little too much, but it was the first time he had someone who he could talk about how his brother was, and all the business strategies he keep coming up with.</p><p>Horri-bull wasn’t much of a talker, so most of the time he listened to Needlenose's ramblings, but sometimes he would open up about some experiences. How being beastformer was as fun as one might think it would be with the functionists still around, how some mechs treated him as a simple animal, like he was an idiot who should just listen to others like a good beast. Needlenose still remembers what shared after a few glasses of engex a few weeks ago:</p><p>“Most mechs just look you down. It doesn’t even matter how small or weak they are compared to you. They just think they are better, because they aren’t ‘animals’, because they were forged ‘better’. I had to fight more than a few of them, they deserved a beating and it’s real good to see them run away. All those ‘I’m your superior’ mechs are just all talk and the moment you confront them they just go cry to the senate, as if those idiots would care if they get beat down.”</p><p>That got him thinking, and actually looking at his surroundings, at the fact that he hasn’t actually seen many beastformers around. Before Horri-Bull he mostly saw vehicles, some flyers and what he know knew were some high class mechs that came to Tracks store to buy chips. They were always the same, mechs who spend thousands and thousands on chips every few months where others couldn’t even afford the old batches, the ones that were out of style so they were on ‘discount’.</p><p>He knew his fixation on his chirps was ridiculous considering all the other injustice going around, but he is a prideful idiot, probably not much different from his brother so he wants people to enjoy his work. To have more mechs being able to use them without having to pay. He wanted to share his work with others, to make chips that could make them happy. For them to have something that made them happy even if they are going by hard times, for them to have something to cheer them up.</p><p>“I wish I could do more,” he said one day at the bar, staring at his engex the same way he has been doing for some time. Horri-bull looked at him from across the table. Needlenose sighed, now looking at his friend.</p><p>“I just… want to do something to help. All I ever do is just go to the meetings and recruit others. I want to do more, but I don’t know what to do,” he dropped his gaze again. “I’m not gonna lie, the only thing that comes to mind is standing out for for mechs when I see them being mistreated and like giving away my chips? But still it feel like there are just simple things, and the chip one a kind of dumb.”</p><p>“Hum. I know that feeling,” Horri-Bull said after some silence. “But for what I see, right now any help could do good for those who can’t do much. Some are too afraid to fight, others are just too blind to see how the others treat them,” he focused on Needlenose eyes, staring at him intensely. “It’s not their fault, and we need to lend them a hand, in any way we can.”</p><p>“I guess you're right.” Needlenose said with a sad smile after a moment, avoiding his friend gaze while Horri-Bull laughed.</p><p>“Of course I am, I’m the smartest mech you even know.”</p><p>“You are against the blockhead of my brother, you don’t have much competition Horri-bull.”</p><p>“Still nothing good to say about your brother huh?”</p><p>“Not much to say, just a high class hunting idiot who believes selling to the higher mechs would make him rich and powerful to be like them. My brother had always been a prideful and egocentric mech but since we ‘hit gold’ with the chips he has been worse. He just cares about himself.” And I'm probably not better he thought sadly.</p><p>“Not you?”</p><p>“If he cared about me he would consider my feelings and ideas about the whole chip business! Nah he just care about himself and being seen as someone important. Not that I’m better, I keep making the damn chips for him,” he stared into the ceiling, pensive “I just want people to like my art so I just give it to whoever wants it, and on this own twisted way my brother wants it…” They stayed silent for a little while. Horri-Bull stared at him, thinking how to get Needlenose on a better mood. After a moment something come to him.</p><p>“You do cosmetic chips right?” he asked when the waiter brought him another engex.</p><p>“Yeah, not much for anything else,” he said, still staring at the ceiling. Horri-Bull rolled his optics, Needlenose could be so dramatic sometime.</p><p>“What about a cosmetic update for the Decepticons?” that got the greish mech attention, fixing his optics on the bigger mech. “We have a logo, but not many can use it all the time, could you…?”</p><p>“Make one for those who couldn’t brand themselves yet?” he said on awe, the idea never cross his mind before, it was genius. “YES! That idea is wonderful! Horri-Bull, wow you are a genius!”</p><p>“We already talked about that but is nice to hear it again,” he said consuming his engex again, while Needlenose just muttered to himself, brainstorming ideas.</p><p>“Yes yes, I think I know how it could be. A simple chip, one that let you display the Decepticon badge on any part of the body you program it to. Just plain and simple, with an easy removal, strong colors. It would look amazing!”</p><p>“Great, tell me when you have it, and I would be your first buyer.”</p><p>“No, not buyer,” he said with a big smile “I wouldn’t sell them, not these ones, so if anyone want them, they can have them.”</p><p>“See, you can do something with your art for others, and with time you would find other ways to help. We will fight for a better Cybertron. For all of us.”</p><p>-------------------------</p><p>“I’m sorry my brother is like that.” Needlenose said servos on his face trying to calm himself, the encounter with Tracks still fresh on this mind. He knew his brother could be an asshole but this time, Primus, he really wanted to punch him… he should have. Tracks could say whatever he wanted about him but how, HOW DARE he to insult Horri-Bull. Making fun of his friend like that, making fun of his feelings for him…</p><p>“Not the first time that happens.” Horri-Bull shrugged, grabbing his glass of engex. “We know his type, a simple asshole”</p><p>“Still, he didn’t have the right to say any of the stuff he said.”</p><p>“He's an idiot, just ignore him and move on” Needlenose stared at his partner, Horri-Bull had live a different life and probably had been the receiving end of that type of comment quite often. And yeah this wasn’t something new where Tracks was concerned, he tended to throw dismissive comments toward others from time to time, and was pretty judgmental. But the thing that bothered Needlenose the most is that, before all this he himself didn’t care much of what his brother had to say. He let his brother said and do whatever he wanted.</p><p>“Do you ever feel like you have lived your whole life blindfolded?” he started saying, staring at Horri-Bull optics, the other mech just hummed prompting him to keep talking. “Well I didn’t, at least until the day I meet you” he let took a deep breath, thinking the best way to express how had been feeling lately. “It’s just, it’s funny? Sad? I’m not sure how to describe this whole thing of how there are stuff that we refuse to see or even admit to have seen, like it’s easier like that.”</p><p>“Seeing how the world actually is it’s hard, but I don’t regret seeing the world like it is.” He said with a chuckle, “I just didn’t care about others, I just watched without acting or just ignoring what was going on around. I just pretended that I didn’t not know, that I didn’t see, why should I care?” He stared to the other mech a mix of shame and resolution on his optics. “The Decepticons showed me why, you showed me why I should care ” he took a deep breath, “I want to do right, for the ones I didn’t help before and the ones who needs help.”</p><p>Horri-Bull stared at him engex forgotten in front of him, not showing any emotion. There was a long silence between them, one that made Needlenose nervous, what if the other judged him or change his opinion after admitting how uncaring he used to be? He didn’t want to lose Horri-Bull, but if his partner preferred to walk away after hearing it, he would accept it. That wouldn’t change his resolution of helping others now but still would hurt a lot.</p><p>“You aren’t the first bot to feel like that,” the beastformer said picking up his engex again. “And you won’t be the last,” he said with proud tone. “We are in this to get others to see the world like it really is, the same way you did. You are an example Needlenose, one I’m proud to consider my partner. Working with you to help get the Decepticons to rise up and all that would be fun. Don’t you think?”</p><p>“I guess you are right” Needlenose responded with a small smile. “We have lots to bots to help.”</p><p>“Yes, it’s a long way to go an all.” Horri-Bull said “But, happy to have you in this with me Needlenose,” he raised his glass, Needlenose couldn’t get the smile off if his face, picking his own and clicking it against the other one.</p><p>“Happy to be here too Horri-bull.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I really wanted to made it more romantic because I don't think the feelings were one sided but i decided to go more by canon on their relationship, maybe someday I will write something more like that.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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